About a century ago, doctors were unable to view the inside of their patient’s body other than cutting the body open. However, this changed literally upon the invention of various useful medical imaging techniques, which were able to produce images of the internal organs and bones without causing pain to the patient. Over the years, vast developments resulted in the establishment of several cross-sectional imaging scans. This paper aims to provide a critical review on the use of two of the famous techniques; CT and PET scans. The paper highlights the strengths and weaknesses of each of these techniques along with briefly mentioning the recent developments in this area concerning the use of these techniques. In addition, this manuscript also sheds some light on the novel and hybrid technology of integrating CT and PET.
Cold plasma is a budding technology that can be used as a nonthermal disinfectant and for surface modification which is free of chemicals and is environmentally friendly. The treatment of water with plasma, producing plasma activated water (PAW), generates an acidic condition resulting in the formation of reactive oxygen species (ROS), reactive nitrogen species (RNS), and creates change in the redox potential as well as conductivity. Consequently, the chemical composition of water and PAW differ from each other and can now be employed as a substitute for disinfection against microbes. The various sources of plasma used for PAW production, its physical and chemical properties and its prospective uses are reviewed in this paper. Particularly, the physiochemical properties of PAW will be discussed in the context of its acidity, conductivity, the amount of ROS and RNS, as well as its redox potential. Since the results are microbial in nature, the microbial disinfection with the use of PAW will also be reviewed. Lastly, the usage of PAW to enhance agricultural methods, such as its effect in plant growth and stimulating seed germination, is also discussed. It can be interpreted that PAW synergistically disinfects food as well as enhances the growth of seedlings. The boost in plant growth conceivably be mainly due to the increase in concentration of nitrate and nitrite ions in PAW. Therefore, in addition to the antimicrobial action of PAW, submerging seedlings in PAW supplements the germination of seeds and plant growth. This could possibly help fight against the drought stress and improve the yield of crops.
Nowadays, with all the climate change problems that we face worldwide, engineers from different specialists work together towards Sustainability and finding solutions, and investigating its environmental impact thoroughly. Architectural, Chemical, environmental, civil engineers have always been closely linked in designing and constructing buildings. Geothermal energy is a local, resilient, reliable, ecologically benign, and sustainable form of the renewable energy system. This type of natural energy could be generated from the earth's heat and takes a variety of purposes, including building heating and cooling, electricity generation, supplying warm/cold water for agricultural products in greenhouses, as well as balneological usage. Furthermore, geothermal energy isn't affected by weather and could provide electricity and heat nearly constantly through the year. This study intends to investigate the opportunity of using geothermal energy in Iraq under the ground represents one of the sustainable energy resources we can use it will be a significant environmental benefit in our housing in air conditioning applications. This review gives a summary of geothermal energy systems in general. Topics addressed include: an introduction to the environments and the energy, also their relationship, a geothermal energy history brief, an overview of geothermal energy systems throughout the world and also through Iraq, and an overview of geothermal systems environmental impacts as well as the environmental impact of Sustainable buildings architecture design, are just a few of the topics covered. Hence, the achieved conclusions of this review can make changes towards sustainable environmental design.
Fluid flow in porous media has received much attention in recent years because of its important role in a large variety of engineering and technical applications, such as filtration units, wastewater treatment, packed beds, and certain types of chemical reactors. The porosity is the most important property of a porous medium and it affects most of the physical properties of the medium. Semi-empirical modified equation for the porosity had been proposed depending on the parameters affecting the porosity for water flow through porous media for sphere particles of mono size packing system. The parameters affecting the porosity in the packed bed of sphere packing were found to be the particle diameters and bed diameter. Several types and kinds of packing materials with different sizes have been used in the packed bed such as Pea Gravel, Marbles, Glass Marbles, Plastic Marbles, Black Marbles, Clear Marbles, Acrylic balls and Glass spheres. The diameters of the packing materials used in this model are from the range of (0.2-0.89) cm, the porosity is from the range of (0.3-0.76), the bed diameters is from the range of (7.62-15.24) cm, velocity is from the range of (0.002 -0.3) m/s, the pressure drop is from the range of (24.9-59097) Pa and the height of packing is from the range of (7.62 -56) cm. The calculation results of the porosity modified equations have been compared with Furnas equation of porosity and with experimental results taken from documented literature data; the comparisons show a very good agreement between the porosity modified equation and experimental results.
scite is a Brooklyn-based organization that helps researchers better discover and understand research articles through Smart Citations–citations that display the context of the citation and describe whether the article provides supporting or contrasting evidence. scite is used by students and researchers from around the world and is funded in part by the National Science Foundation and the National Institute on Drug Abuse of the National Institutes of Health.